Patrushev and Gerasimov wanted to sabotage full-scale war, leaked Pentagon documents say

Tagesspiegel reported the information referring to the leaked US documents.

Reportedly, the Secretary of the Security Council and the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation wanted to sabotage military operations in order to accelerate the end of a full-scale war in Ukraine.

Patrushev and Gerasimov's plan was the Russian army's defeat in the southern direction. To do this, they planned to redeploy troops to Mariupol.

The document says that Gerasimov promised to 'deliberately lose' until March 5, when Vladimir Putin was likely to start chemotherapy and would not be able to influence the course of the war. It is not specified to whom Gerasimov made the promise.

Tagesspiegel also notes that Nikolai Patrushev and Valery Gerasimov believed that a military defeat would make Putin 'look bad' and lead to the end of the war.

• On April 6, The New York Times reported on the leak of classified documents detailing US and NATO plans to reinforce the Ukrainian army ahead of a planned counteroffensive. The Pentagon launched an investigation.